Andy Warhol a Pop Culture Icon Essay Example For Students

Andy Warhol: a Pop Culture Icon Essay His poor upbringing undoubtedly contributed to his future obsession with money and celebrity. In 1946, Andy enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology as a commercial art student. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City where he quickly became an accomplished art designer. He did graphic work for such establishments as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and advertising for l. Miller shoes. Although successful, Warhol eventually became disenchanted with his career and set out to be part to the new movement of pop art (Lucie-Smith 336). In the early sass, Andy Warhol rattled the art world with his silk screens of Hollywood beauties and the now legendary, Campbell Soup Cans. Society, up until that point, had never seen anything so literal be called art. In fact, the Campbell Soup Company forced Warhol to defend the paintings as legitimate works to art after they sued him for copyright infringement. They later dropped the lawsuit after deciding it was good advertisement (Poland 157). The Soup Cans sparked something inside Warhol and he began to use everyday objects as his inspirations. Brills soap-pad boxes, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Heinz 57, and Kellogg, to name a few. He began painting these objects by hand, but eventually silk-screened them directly to the canvas. This process outraged the art world. One critic even said, his work is just too silly to think about, (Russell). He became a constant irritant to fellow artists and museums, many Of Which refused to accept his creations as art. This opposition did not stop Warhol from pursuing this creative outlet. His style became a statement to the world about his view of pop culture. The reason I am painting this way is that want to be a machine, said Warhol. He expanded this form to include famous Hollywood and political icons. From Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, to Jackie Kennedy and Mao, Warhol translated universal images in a unique and unprecedented way. He became obsessed with mass production and interchangeability. He even used the same image of the Mona Lisa and repeated it thirty times, entitling it as Thirty are Better Than One, Critics continued to reprimand Warhol tort his art: trot start to finish was a self-promoting trickster, a pseudo-artist who corrupted the young, fouled the very notion of high art, manipulated the market, went along with the media was triviality personified, (Russell Yet, within this opposition, Andy Warhol became a star. He used his art to reach the masses. His images became ingrained in the minds of both the working class and the Hollywood starlets. Giant Mercuric is quoted as saying, What wanted was to communicate, to make art as popular as possible, to fascinate not only the rich and the famous but also ordinary people, such as students and workers. All his efforts were aimed in that direction (More 20). Warhol did indeed steal art out of the hands of the rich and give it to the poor. Everyone recognized his art, and thus recognized him. Andy Warhol became a fixture on the social scene throughout the sixties and seventies. He partied at Studio 54 and ate at Serendipity 3. He hung out with all the icons of that time, yet remained a mystery to most. His private life became synonymous with his art. He was one of the only people of that time to be publicly homosexual. He later documented many relationships in The Warhol Diaries. Confidants of Whorls have often said that he hated himself, but was determined to not let that sidetrack his goals. Journalist Stephen Holder states: With his blotched skin, bulbous nose and early hair loss (concealed under a rise of bad wigs), Warhol regarded himself as a physical freak and hated to be touched. Although he had homosexual sex, he was essentially a evacuee with a voracious appetite for fame, He obviously could not be Marilyn Monroe, but he could become a brand-name art star, and he bent all his talent and willpower to the quest. (Wisped) His obsession with fame did turn him into a brand name, and even he had no idea the repercussions. Brief Comparison Of Pop Culture 60s Vs 90s EssayCritic Robert Hughes said Warhol was a conduit for a sort of collective American state of mind in which celebritys famous image of a person, the famous brand enhanced completely replaced both sacredness and solidity, (Wisped). Perhaps that is why he is called the Prince of pop. Whorls art has left a distinct message to society. Many wondered if he was ever really serious about his subjects, if he was playing a joke on the modern civilization. But he was actually just representing the times. Time Magazine exclaims: Pop is the realm where American art gave up its spiritual reach in exchange for the bounty of commerce. Warhol, more than any of his peers, was its avatar, its passive-aggressive emperor with a tapioca complexion and a pale wig, gliding through its landscape as prankster and publicist, pariah, sexual cipher, parvenu, (Maddox 231 Whorls art and lifestyle left a mark on culture. He changed the viva people looked at celebrities, commercialism, and consumerism. He also first opened the eyes of many people about homosexuality. He never made excuses for himself. Yet, he never explained himself. He somehow knew he did not need to; someday we would all understand what he was saying. Stephen Holder states: For better or worse, Warhol was a prophet Of the rot eroding the empire from the inside out. Before Madonna and Paris Hilton, there was Warhol. But to assume, as some still do, that Whorls vision was nihilistic and steeped in irony is to kick only at the chilly industrialized surface of art that sprang from a passionate. Quasi-religious worship of pop culture and its icons (More 20). Warhol was a catalyst, a trailblazer, for what the world would become. As he followed the path laid before him, so others have followed his path. The once loathed Warhol has influenced many artists since his time. A few of which that have recognized Warhol as inspiration are Cindy Sherman, Jeff Sons, and Dampen Hirsh, Whole careers can now be spun from a clutch of industrial knock-offs and icons of calculated sensationalism, (More 74). Art has definitely not heard the last from Andy Warhol, Conclusion Andy Warhol was indeed a pop-culture icon with a profound influence on modern art and the world around him, believe that he truly changed the way people think about art. He was the first to blur the lines between commercialism ND fine art, Today we are a culture obsessed with brand names, image and celebrity. Warhol avgas the first to recognize this movement. Because of this his art is still extremely relevant to society. Can look at his painting of Jackie and grasp the warning. Warhol was showing that tragedy is and will continue to be cheapened by the press and splashed around as entertainment. We Will absorb so much of what is being thrown at us that we will become numb to it all. I feel that Whorls life speaks for itself and is open to interpretation. Whether one likes his art or not, cannot be denied that he had an impact. He embodied the decades Of the sixties and seventies Without having to speak a word. I believe he saw the danger of pop culture, but was so fascinated and obsessed with it himself, that he gave his life over to it. Andy Warhol had such a diverse life that it was impossible to include all of it. I would have liked to have dissected has career in filming because it was truly a bizarre facets of his life. I also would have liked to discuss The Underground in detail. His art studio and his assistants were an icon in itself. It was a social center for much of the sixties and seventies,